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The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread

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As anyone who has ever eaten brunch in a dining hall knows, indulgence typically inspires a full stomach and a guilty conscience. The delicious sensation of biting into soft, fluffy carbs leads to contentment, but at the price of more calories than is enjoyable to contemplate. Yet there is a way to have your bagel and eat it, too. The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, by Maria Balinska, is just as absorbing as the real thing, but unlike that schmear of cream cheese, it is calorie free.

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The Sex Was Bad, the Film Was Worse

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If you feel like you haven’t spent enough quality time with the guys lately, Sex Drive will feel like a much-needed binge. The film, directed by Sean Anders, combines two archetypal genres: Apatow-style awkward-loser-with-a-mission movies and road trip movies. The story follows 18-year-old Ian (Josh Zuckerman) and his two best friends, Lance (Clark Duke, familiar to many as the nerdy Christian roommate in Greek) and Felicia (Amanda Crew), from the suburbs of Chicago to Knoxville on a cross-country quest to help Ian lose his virginity to a girl he meets online, Miss Tasty. This premise could potentially yield endless brilliance and merriment, at once a Kerouac-esque celebration of Americana and a clever, sarcastic coming-of-age tale a la Superbad and American Pie.

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A Tragedy of Old Made Funny and New

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Are you in grave danger? The characters in Hernani are, especially the title character and his lover, Doña Sol. Hernani — given a gender-reversing spin by Bridget Saracino ’11 — is a bandit chased by the authorities, while Doña Sol (Sharisse Taylor) is engaged to marry her uncle, the Duke (Marc Hem Lee ’10). The couple must overcome these obstacles in order to be together in this entertaining and over-the-top melodrama, directed by Katherine Karaus ’10.